Stafford County will not be holding a live graduation ceremony this year.

The cancelation comes after Gov. Ralph Northam has announced that no gatherings of 50 people or more can take place.

“Our school division very much wanted to honor your important accomplishment with a traditional senior class graduation ceremony,” said Superintendent Scott Kizner in a letter to students on June 9.

High school principals will be planning an alternative, family graduation ceremony for seniors and their parents/guardians.

“I am very proud of all of you, and I share in your disappointment that we cannot have a more traditional graduation ceremony as a senior class,” Kizner said.

Principals will provide students with more information on the schedule of individual family graduation ceremonies, according to Kizner.

Earlier in the spring, Kizner announced that the in-person graduation would be moved to August 1 contingent upon Northam’s guidance.

Stafford County was one of the first school divisions, bar Manassas City, to announce a graduation date.

 

 

 

The driver of a 2003 Ford Focus that crashed on Prince William Parkway last night has died on June 8 as a result of severe injuries.

This single-car crash occurred near Golansky Blvd. in Woodbridge in the evening hours of June 7. The driver was headed eastbound and lost control of the vehicle.

The vehicle ran off of the road, hit a tree, and was overturned causing the unrestrained driver to get ejected from the car.

A helicopter transported the driver to a trauma center, but after suffering a heart attack the driver was transported by ambulance to Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be factors in the crash, police have reported. No one else was in the car.

Prince William police have identified the man as 22-year-old Ezekiel Josiah Gales of Dumfries.

The southbound entry ramp for the Interstate 395 E-ZPass Express Lanes near Edsall Road is closed for repair work.

The specific cause for this closure has not been released yet.

The next available entry into the southbound I-395 E-ZPass Express Lanes is just after the Franconia-Springfield Parkway near Backlick Road.

Crews are investigating the ramp. The timeline for reopening the entry ramp hasn’t been determined yet.

 

The City of Manassas experienced a brief power outage on Monday morning affecting 493 customers.

The culprit – a squirrel.

At 8:25 a.m. the power went out. It was restored in 23 minutes.

Residents pay the city of Manassas for their electricity.

The city provides power to all of its residents with 205 miles of primary power lines.

In Prince William County, power is supplied to residents through Dominion Energy or Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC).

Stafford County residents have either Dominion, NOVEC, or Rappahannock Electric Cooperative for their electricity.

About 700 protestors marched through downtown Fredericksburg on Sunday afternoon in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protests come after the death of George Floyd that sparked nation-wide outrage.

“We were not expecting this much of a turnout at all,” said Caylee Curfman, one of the protest organizers.

Protestors gathered in market square outside of the Fredericksburg Area Museum. Before the event, free posters and markers were given out so that people could make their own signs for the march.

Fairfax resident Charlene Smith who was “born and raised in Fredericksburg” used the free poster-making materials to make a sign that reads “White silence equals white consent.”

“I didn’t have a chance to grab any [signs] before I came down, and I want to make as much noise as possible with a sign, with my voice, and with my shirt,” Smith said.

The protestors exited Market Square in large crowds, funneling through the upper entrance toward Princess Anne Street.

From there, they made their way to the train station. The line of protestors was so long that when the front of the line turned around to head back the other direction, the back of the line still hadn’t made it to the train tracks. Multiple chants could be heard at different sections of the line.

As the protestors marched up William Street, they paused to take a knee at the location where the slave auction block once stood.

The slave auction block was removed on June 5 and will be displayed in the Fredericksburg Area Museum. On Nov. 12, the plan to relocate the block was approved, but it’s removal was delayed due to legal obstacles and coronavirus restrictions.

The group then reconvened at Hurkamp Park where they paused to rehydrate and rest.

Several speakers stood up on benches to address the crowd, including 18-year-old Yaa Boachie, one of the protest organizers, in the video below.

At the #BLM protests in Fredericksburg, 18-year-old Yaa Boachie speaks to the crowd. pic.twitter.com/76v1NtJPHp

— Susie Webb (@skwebb73) June 8, 2020

After the speeches, the protestors held five minutes of silence for George Floyd.

Many suppliers lined the route of the protestors handing out free water, Gatorade, and snacks.

“Whatever the protestors need, we’re following along in our car making sure everyone stays hydrated and fueled up,” said Alexandra Perez, photographed above with her husband and two kids.

The protestors have raised over $4,000 in donations to pay for the water and supplies, according to Dalena Lee who is in charge of the supply chain.

As the line of 700 protestors marched through the heart of Fredericksburg, they didn’t pause to wait for green lights at crosswalks. Motorcyclist Cody Medley was one of the people who helped block intersections to protect the marchers as they crossed.

“I’m making sure that everybody’s safe and not getting hit by any crazy people that don’t agree with this movement,” Medley said.

Residents in Fredericksburg came outside of their houses to watch the protestors as they marched by.

“These protests mean everything, it means freedom,” said Fredericksburg resident Gaye Adegbalola (center). Adegbalola was valedictorian of her class in the then-segregated Walker Grant High School.

When the protest concluded at 6:30 p.m., everyone joined together in market square where they started chanting and dancing. There was no police intervention in this protest, and it remained peaceful.

Protestors chanted together at Market Square in Fredericksburg to conclude their march. Expletive pic.twitter.com/QjTEHcQiPG

— Susie Webb (@skwebb73) June 8, 2020

After marching through Downtown Fredericksburg, protestors started chanting in Market Square. pic.twitter.com/fyJkdgA9O9

— Susie Webb (@skwebb73) June 8, 2020

 

Marchers in Fredericksburg walked the path from the Dorothy Hart Community Center to Shiloh Baptist Church, commemorating the Walker Grant High School graduating class of 1950. 

The 27 graduates of the sole Fredericksburg high school that was open to African American students were supposed to have their graduation ceremony at the, then, Charles St. Community Center.

They could only hold their graduation ceremony here, however, if the African American attendees (including graduates, teachers, and family members) went through the side door, not the front.

In protests, the seniors marched together down to Shiloh Baptist Church to hold their graduation ceremony there. 

Now, exactly 70 years later, Black Lives Matter marchers in Fredericksburg followed their same trail. 

Members of the original 1950 class were originally going to attend the event, but are instead watching a virtual recording of the march due to coronavirus-related concerns.

Still, family members and supporters totaling about 250 people attended the event. 

“I’m out here because this is family. A lot of my family members grew up here and were graduating members of Walker Grant. My grandmother even attended Walker Grant when she was a little girl,” Delegate Joshua Cole said in an interview with Potomac Local News. 

Cole led a prayer for members of the class of 2020 at the event who were invited to come dressed in their cap and gown. 

“I think it’s important for them [graduates] to know their history and to be proud of their history and to know what took place here. Those civil rights acts were very civil and nonviolent,” said Xavier Richardson, a facilitator of the event who mentors students through Partnership for Academic Excellence. 

Cristina Mitchell, a class of 2020 graduate from Liberty University, came to the march decked in her cap and gown. 

“I’m out here to help support the Black Lives Matter movement as well as to participate in this reenactment for when seniors at Walker Grant weren’t allowed through the front door,” Mitchell said.

Shiloh Baptist Church Reverand Dr. Aaron L. Dobynes was also a speaker at the event. 

“We live in a place where in just a matter of moments, your name, my name, our children’s names could be the next names on a t-shirt, and we can be preaching your loved one’s funeral, but we’re here to end all of that,” Dobynes said. “We’re sick and tired.”

Earlier in the day, a different group of protesters gathered outside of City Hall

The route they took today was much shorter and easier than the marches preceding it this past week in order to give protestors a break.

These protesters marched down William Street to Kenmore Park chanting “Black lives matter,” “say his name, George Floyd, say her name, Breonna Taylor,” and “No justice, no peace, f__k these racist-ass police.”

“You just have to continuously build endurance as you go. At this point, my feet hurt, but I don’t feel them until I get home at night. The pain goes away the second I start marching again,” said Amaya Montgomery, one of the protest organizers. 

The around 115 protestors rested in the shade of Kenmore Park, marched to Hurkamp park, took another pause there, and then returned to City Hall. 

“I’m just tired of seeing all the injustice that’s going on,” protestor Greg Woods said. “The only way to make change is to go out here and do it.”

The protest remained peaceful. Police cars drove past the event, monitoring protesters, but never exited their vehicles. 

There were many people handing out water and food to protestors on their route. 

“I’ve been walking the last couple of days. Today I’m taking a break, I’ve got some bad blisters on my feet, so I’m just going to pass out some water and snacks” said Nykia Peoples pictured right. 

Peoples was among the group of protesters that got teargassed at the Sunday protests.  

“I never thought I would see something like this in our little town here… I got a little bit [of teargas] on me. I inhaled it, it was hard to breathe and speak and everything,” Peoples said. 

Earlier in the day, the City of Fredericksburg lifted its curfew

The 8 p.m. curfew was put in place on June 1 following Sunday’s protests and later was extended through June 8. 

“The City has experienced peaceful protests for the past three nights, and there is positive momentum for continuing peaceful protest in the community. The Chief of Police concurs in this assessment, and further assesses that the termination of the curfew will reinforce the existing positive momentum. He therefore recommends that the current environment warrants the immediate termination of the curfew,” read the amendment to the emergency order.

 

Several big projects are in the work for the landfill through the Rappahannock Regional Solid Waste Management Board (R-Board) including a new landfill cell, glass recycling program, and wheel wash system.

The R-Board has had an overall drop in revenues for the fiscal year 2020, yet they’re still on-budget since they were ahead of it prior to the coronavirus pandemic taking hold. 

On the commercial side, revenues have dropped 10-15%, but revenues on the residential side have actually gone up around 15%.

“We’re seeing a lot of spring cleaning going on. We’re also seeing kids are home from school, and college kids are home from school, so it’s creating more of the residential type trash,” R-Board Director Joe Buchanan said. 

Multiple projects have had to be put on hold including an expansion at the front gate, an additional truck scale, and a GPS system for a landfill compactor. 

Additionally, the fiscal year 2021 budget has been reduced by about 17% due to uncertainty in revenues. 

The Board was looking into a new bulldozer and excavator, but no new capital equipment purchases will be made next year. 

The R-Board is still continuing with the construction of its new landfill cell, F-3f

This $4.2 million, 7-acre project is set to be completed on-time by the end of 2020. The fiscal year 2020 budget covers $1 million of the project, $2.2 million comes from the R-Board’s short-term investments and cash account, and $1 million will come from the fiscal year 2021 budget. 

The landfill needs to build a new cell every four to five years. The current cell where all the solid waste goes, F-2, is projected to be full by March to June of 2021. 

 The design of the new cell was done several years prior and was approved by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). 

Everything has to go through a permit process, and there will be tests to make sure that there are no holes in the liners of the cell. 

At the end of the day, workers will cover the waste with either dirt or a tarping system.

The R-Board has increased its use of the tarping system in the past six months as it helps conserve airspace, but weather effects if the tarps can be employed. 

“We want to have odor control, fire control, it’s a safety issue, and it’s a DEQ requirement that your waste is covered at the end of each working day,” Buchanan said. 

The landfill, opened in the early 1990s, is estimated to have around 20 years left in its lifetime. 

Glass recycling may be the key to building a cheaper base for Cell F-3

The R-Board entered into a six-month pilot program that ended in March with the Fairfax Purple Can Club who transform the recycled glass into sand and gravel. 

Through this pilot program, Fairfax hauled the material, but now that it is over, the R-Board has decided to continue hauling the glass to them. 

Gravel is a needed material for the construction of Cell F-3. The glass gravel from Fairfax costs $8 a ton and could be backhauled, while industry range gravel products range from $13 to $18 per ton. 

Right now, glass is in the single-stream mix, and due to its nature can cause a negative draw to the landfill. 

“It’s never been good in the single-stream mix,” Recycling Coordinator Diane Jones said

In order for the glass to be recycled into another piece of glass, it needs to be cleaned immaculately. 

The glass collected through the single-stream mix must go to Tidewater Fiber Corporation who separates it from the other materials, but they can’t get it as clean as it needs to be. It has to be shipped again down to Strategic Materials in North Carolina who charge $34 a ton. 

“The need to move from voluntary separation of glass to not accepting glass in the mixed recyclable collection system is a step that may be necessary going forward,” stated an R-Board memo. 

The glass that’s being shipped up to Fairfax comes from a voluntary glass separation program at Belmont Road. 

The R-Board experimented with this glass separation program from September to December of 2018 from which they received 22 tons of glass. From January to June of 2019, though, they only collected 18 tons of material. 

“We started to do really aggressive outreach because the glass situation in the single stream is just not good” Diane

Then, from July to December of 2019 they saw an uptick of 57 tons of material collected. This year, the program is averaging 16.5 tons a month in the first four months of the year.  

From January to June of this year, they are projected to collect 100 tons, double what was received the previous year. 

The R-Board is also working on a new wheel wash system, expected to be finished in the next 60 days. 

This wheel wash system will wash the tires and undercarriage of the trucks before they leave the landfill. 

The reusable system will cost $200,000.

Water and dirt used to wash the trucks will be captured by the system. A coagulant will separate the water and dirt, putting the dirt back into the landfill and filtering the water so it can be reused to wash the trucks. 

 

The Fredericksburg City Council just approved a $545,000 plan to fix up the asphalt and pave over sections of William Street and Blue and Gray Parkway.

The William Street section will stretch from the Blue and Gray Parkway to Washington Avenue by the city cemetery. 

“It’s a stretch of highway that really does need this work,” said Doug Fawcett, assistant city manager. 

An average of 13,000 vehicles travels on the William street section each day.

The Blue and Gray Parkway section will run from the CSX Railroad Bridge to the Route 2 and 17 Bridge. An average of 41,000 vehicles per day drive on this section of road.

This project will be funded in total by VDOT and comes in well below the $820,000 reserved for the project. 

 

On May 26, the Fredericksburg City Council held a public hearing to discuss proposed revisions to their budget for the fiscal year 2021. 

The revised budget total is down 7.5% from the March 10 recommended budget, coming in at $95.7 million. This is also a 5.9% decrease compared to the 2020 fiscal year. 

Assuming a June re-opening, the new budget proposals estimate $90.1 million in revenue. The extra $5.6 million would come from the fund balance. 

The city has lost revenue from the decline in consumerism affecting how much is raked in with the sales tax, meals tax, and hotel lodging tax. 

From March 10, revenue from the sales tax has been down 15%, the meals tax fund is down 25%, and the lodging tax is down 20%.

From the fiscal year 2020 to the fiscal year 2021, there’s a projected 7% drop in the sales tax, 24% drop in the meals tax, 22% drop in the lodging tax, and 11% drop in the telecommunication sales tax funds.

With a slimmed-down budget comes several cuts from the original March 10 budget. 

The recommendation of a 4% October salary increase for city employees has been scrapped, as have nine new positions. 

The first read of the budget will take place on June 9, and a second reading will occur on June 23.